I started this post but parked it as a draft several days ago. Tonight, my desktop PC’s CPU and motherboard seem to have winged their way to the Land where Computer Parts are Eternally Blessed, which I’ll take as a sign that I ought to blog. So, did my title get your attention yet?
The way in which quests are obtained and executed in almost every MMO I’ve played are painfully similar. You find your friendly Dude-Standing-Around-Waiting-To-Hand-Out-A-Quest, click on him, and receive your task. Your task is almost invariably a variation of: Kill X mobs, Clear a “dungeon” and click on something at the end, Deliver this widget, Go fetch a widget, or Escort someone somewhere. Then you return to DSAWTHOAQ, receive your gold pieces and/or items and/or experience, and go merrily on your way. Until someone (maybe even you repeating the quest) does the Exact Same Thing.
Lame.
OK, now that I’ve been incendiary for a bit, here’s what I like about this sort of quest system. It gives people something to talk about. In DDO, if someone talks about getting a party together to do the Low Road, you have a frame of reference. It’s comfortable, and that’s a way to have lots of fun. I would never recommend abolishing this model entirely. However, it seems that these quests should be of a nature that it might make sense to repeat them. “Oh no, my barn is infested with rats AGAIN! It’s too bad nobody has yet invented strychnine.”
I’m going to bring up another example of a quest that was great… The beginning and end of the Star Wars Galaxies “Jedi Village” quest. This was an enormous quest that ended up with your character qualifying to begin life as a Jedi. The coolest part was that the beginning and end find YOU — a strange old man runs up to you as you journey in the middle of nowhere, and then your quest begins…
So, what made this quest cool? It found ME! That’s a little bit more interesting than my going to the same exact spot where an NPC has been standing, and probably will stand for All Time, handing out the quest and/or completion.
I could continue to pontificate, but instead, I’ll propose my idea for Extremely Dynamic Quests.
Quests can be Bigger
This isn’t as much a component of a dynamic quest as it is a prerequisite for some things I’ll discuss later. It would make more sense for what I’m going to propose that quests be divided into many relatively small segments. I’m going to steal a page from Tuebit here — quests should range from tiny (quick solo diversion, maybe a single battle) to small (one game session) to medium (one session for a group) to large (one long session or several short sessions, group) to epic (many sessions for a group). A full quest should neatly subdivide into a series of smaller quests — or even a “web” of quests with decision points and branching. So if your overall quest is “Locate the Sword of +5 Uberness,” your day’s mission might be “End the Bandit Raid on Teeny Hamlet.” You might decide to scare off all the bandits by releasing the nearby dragon… Or you might knife the Hamlet Chieftain in his cottage at night and hand the hamlet to the bandits. Either of these advances you to the next “node” in the quest web.
Quests can be Competitive
The “final reward” leg of a quest should attract multiple adventurers. I mean, if it’s cool enough to do, then lots of folks want to try it — but only one group should finally succeed. If the quest is divided into lots of small legs, then it’s not a waste of time for anyone, even if you’re not on the team that finally sees the end…
Quests Need Multiple Solutions
Any individual quest should have at least a couple of solutions — even if that consists of “Kill boss mob A” or “Kill boss mob B.” Ideally, this could get a lot more interesting — nonviolent solutions for quests, etc.
Quests Should Find Me
Much like the SWG Old Man, quests should find the player. Maybe someone actively seeks you out to ask for your aid. Maybe based on your reputation and standing with different factions, you hear tidbits in public places that other players don’t. Etc, etc. Let’s make quests unique to players — or at least make them available only to some folks. (This also encourages grouping — hey, your quest sounds way cooler than any leads I’ve found lately. Maybe there’s even an entire playstyle that focuses on maximizing quest-finding abilities. Sky’s the limit so far…)
Finally…
Quests Must be Extremely Dynamic
I think it’s totally feasible to create a system, feed it a few hundred small quest definitions, some rules for creating Large and Epic quests, and turn it loose on a playerbase. A bit of care with dialog and “quest bites,” and there’s really no need for quests to feel random and athematic. (Is that a word? I hereby dub athematic, adjective, lacking a theme.)
Conclusions?
So, what does this leave us with? Now we have quests that are unusual, dynamic, not available to everybody, and last but not least — where our actions AFFECT the outcome. Am I being naive, or is this just a direction that hasn’t really been explored yet?
One Comment
Quest / mission systems have such great potential to promote the RPG in MMORPG. It’s sad to see how they’re usually implemented. Either they’re constructed as a series of guide-posts to route you through the level grind (ala WOW) or they’re merely a way to guarantee the location of spawn (mission terminal ala SWG). In some games (DDO, CoH/CoV) missions expose a story written by company.
This is well and fine, but there’s an opportunity for quest / mission systems to promote player-developed-game-mediated story and player/player interaction.
There are two quotes in your post that sum up the opportunity. Quests need not be “available to everybody” and “our actions AFFECT the outcome.”
In addition to standard quest / mission fare, there should be unique global quests. “We’ve heard the thieves guild is after the Tiara of Tuebit. We’ll pay you to guard the museum.” A seemingly simple timed ‘Quest’ — keep the thieves at bay for 30 minutes.
If you succeed, there’s always tomorrow (for perhaps another group). If you lose, perahsp the museum is unhappy with you, perhaps accuses you of colluding with the thieves and threatens to have the authorities arrest you if you don’t get it back.
The key is, there’s only one ‘Tiara of Tuebit’. Only one group can guard it (at a time). Once it’s stolen, it’s gone and the quest changes FOR EVERYONE FOREVER (or at least until someone retrieves it). Imagine the ridicule you’ll take if it’s your group that manages to let the thieves have off with the Tiara.
Aside: I remember one CoH mission where Tachevert had to ‘guard the obelisk’. He didn’t. We still harass him about this.
This can quickly turn into an entire web of quests. Let’s say your team goes after the stolen Tiara and tracks down the thieves. When you get there, the Tiara is gone. Maybe they’ve fenced it already (“Find the fence”). Maybe the fence has sold it to an underground art collector (“Steal back the Tiara”). Maybe it’s been stolen by another guild, or an individual player (“Track down Zool, the Player Thief”).
Each of these new quests can have two sides. While you’re guarding the Tiara in the museum, the server throws NPC thieves at you, but might also hire another player group to steal it. Perhaps you catch one of the thieves (NPC or Player) and toss them in jail. New quest: “Jailbreak.” PvP Questing!
Or the fence might hire assasins to kill those trying to reclaim the Tiara. The fence might hire someone to deliver the Tiara to the underground art collector. The collector will most certainly hire guards for his collection. A little imagination, the possibilities are huge. All from one Tiara.
I recognize I’m glossing over very tough implementation problems here.
But the goals are worthy
- Killing is Not A Quest: Kill 10 Nuna’s is a few minutes diversion, not a quest. Get 10 Nuna Feathers (50% drop rate) isn’t any better. Combat isn’t a quest. Protect the Tiara is a quest (albeit of minor consequence). You’ll still be doing some mowing, but theoretically, at least, there’s no requirement. Depending on how much freedom the world affords that same quest may have multiple solutions.
- Global Quests: You’re competing with everyone else, there’s only one winner and their actions result in a real change to the world). CoH/CoV has quests like ‘Get the Loot’. I never bother to read the story, because the story is inconsequential. While I’m ‘Getting the Loot’, I’ll bet 20 others are doing the same, and yet our paths never cross. Now if we were all ‘Getting the Same Loot’, that would be interesting.
- Quests Spawn Quests: Quests are more interesting, in my mind, when they form part of a larger story. Quests that spawn quests might allow one to take a simple concept and expand it into a inter-related web of quests. As these quests are completed by the players, a story forms. You sign up to steal the Tiara and another group signs up to protect it. Sure, you might win, but the story doesn’t end there. Someone’s going to be looking for you: even if you ditch the Tiara … they’re going to want to know who you passed it on to.
- Quests Can Be Long: I don’t think you need to finish a quest in one night. Quests can have sort of episodes. Find the thieves that stole it. Find out who they fenced it to. Find the fence. Find the (underground) art collector that the fence sold it too. Steal it back from the (underground) art collector. Each of these could be a gaming session.
- Quests Find You: I’d take it one step further. Not only does the Quest Giver find you, the Quest finds you. Are you on the search for the Tiara? The thieves guild hires assasins to attempt to kill you at regular intervals (until you dump or complete the quest). Did you somehow acquire the Tiara? NPC hired-thugs track you down at regular intervals to attempt to take it back. NPC snitches give other Players clues on where to find you.
- Quests Promote Player Interaction: Every quest has the potential for two sides. Guard / steal. Keep thief in jail / jail break. Find thieves guild / eliminate the curious folks. Perhaps there are opportunities to promote co-operative interaction also.
A really great subject Tachevert. And one that deserves much more discussion.
No doubt there will be complicated problems to address during implementation. I think I’d rather struggle with a problem like this, than, say, focusing on eye-candy.
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